


Underlying Confessions of Love in Modern Media

by raspberryghoulaid



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Boyfriends, Boys In Love, Boys Kissing, Canon Compliant, Community - Freeform, First Kiss, Getting Together, Idiots in Love, Love Confessions, M/M, Pillow & Blanket Forts, Trobed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:35:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26765893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raspberryghoulaid/pseuds/raspberryghoulaid
Summary: “And what about the timelines where we're something…..more?”When late night blanket-fort convos and discussions of different timelines turn into something else entirely.
Relationships: Troy Barnes/Abed Nadir
Comments: 12
Kudos: 135





	Underlying Confessions of Love in Modern Media

“Do you ever think about who we are to each other in the other timelines?” Troy turns his head to face Abed, and even in the dim light of the blanket fort, Abed can read the turmoil painted all over Troy’s expression. “Like, do you think we’re best friends in every timeline?” His hands play with a thread on his sweater restlessly, and it reminds Abed of himself far too much. Usually he’s on the other side of these conversations, posing questions that often make him feel like he analyzes things too much, or that just bring attention to his inability to focus on more _normal_ topics, as Jeff often tells him. 

“I’d hope so,” He responds, and it causes Troy to smile just slightly. “Sometimes I run the simulations, though, of a timeline where we aren’t. It’s very catastrophic. I think the universe wants us to be together.” Troy’s grinning now, and Abed takes a mental snapshot to store away for later; not that he really needs to, it doesn’t take much to put a smile on the other boy’s face. 

“You run simulations of me and you?” Troy’s interest seems to have peaked, and he inches across the carpet so he now lays directly beside Abed, their arms brushing against each other’s. Abed can feel Troy’s breath on his face, and all of a sudden the room seems to close in on him. There’s a mass in his throat that wasn’t there before, and the skin under his pajamas that touches Troy’s ignites. 

“Yea.” He swallows, unable to find the willpower to tear his gaze from Troy’s. 

“Cool.”

“Cool, cool, cool.” Except nothing about Abed feels cool, and his whole body seems to be sweating as Troy laughs. Everything about this moment is outside of their usual dynamic, from the way Troy’s fingers seems to hesitate over his, to the gleam in the other boy’s eye that Abed hasn’t seen since Troy had first started seeing Britta-that is, until eventually coming to the revelation they operated better as friends. It’s making him feel claustrophobic, his emotions struggling to break out of his hardened shell he’d worked so hard to build to avoid predicaments such as this. It seems to have come out of nowhere, yet deep down Abed knows that it’s a fire that’s been simmering for a while now, stoked by the warmth of Troy’s body pressed against his and the way the other boy’s eyes pierce straight into his very soul. 

“And what about the timelines where we're something…..more?” Troy’s question slices through the silence that’d been permeating around the two of them and making the blanket fort feel a little less like a fort and more like a haven, a place where only the two of them exist and the outside world is just an enormity of what ifs. In the blanket fort, Abed doesn’t have to ask _what if_ when Troy’s fingers make the move to weave between his, or the distance between them grows smaller with each passing second. “Is this one of those timelines?” Troy stops just before he hits the target, his words hanging in the air, a challenge for Abed to accept or refuse. 

For probably the first time in his life, Abed can’t find the words to say, but he doesn’t think they’re needed, anyways, as his free hand reaches up to comb through Troy’s hair. He nods, a consenting tilt of his head, and Troy doesn’t waste any time in sealing the space between them. Everything about the kiss is soft, and gentle, and _easy_ , and before Abed can even register it he’s moving naturally with the other boy, as if this is something they’ve done countless times before. It’s almost on instinct, as if he’s been prepared to kiss Troy Barnes for his whole life. In a way, he has, he’s run it in the Dreamatorium time and time again; however, being in this moment right now, with Troy’s lips _right there_ and his hands charting entirely new maps of Abed’s body, he doesn’t think he could’ve ever designed something as wonderful as the real thing. 

They kiss until Abed’s lips are swollen and all of the breath has been stolen from Troy’s lungs. There’s a redness in Abed’s cheeks that Troy teases him about, and Abed retaliates by pointing out the considerably large size of Troy’s pupils. “This isn’t going to end with a Freaky Friday fiasco in which you realize I’m not the one for you and we shift from best friends into slightly-distanced-by-prior-romance friends, right?” Abed breathes, running his fingertips along the underside of Troy’s jawline carefully. 

“No,” Troy responds immediately, shaking his head. “I’ve never _not_ known you were the one for me, Abed.”

“But you-”

“I have been scared of this part of me for so long,” Troy cuts in, resting his palm on Abed’s cheek, who leans into the touch gratefully. “I tried to hide it, I really did, and I convinced myself it’d go away the more I pushed myself into relationships that just weren’t enough for me. Would never be. For a while, in highschool, it worked, but then I came here, to Greendale, and I met you, and you scared the _hell_ out of me. I could get away with it in highschool because I’d never been attracted to any of the guys there anyways. But then I met you, and it was like discovering something entirely new, because I quickly realized you were someone I _absolutely could_ fall in love with, and I was terrified. So I turned to what was safe, what was attainable. That was Britta. I was such a dick for using her like that, I know that, and I knew that the entire time we were dating. So I broke up with her, and I told her the truth.” 

Abed blinks, his gaze roaming over every one of Troy’s features, illuminated by the soft glow of the nightlight they kept in the kitchen. “And what’s the truth?” He’s whispering now, his voice threatening to give out on him. Troy smiles fondly, caressing the surface of Abed’s cheek with a tenderness that Abed hasn’t experienced since his mom left. 

“The truth, Abed, is that I am so hopelessly, desperately in love with you.” Troy tells him, and Abed feels the breach in his walls where his bottled emotions have made their way through, pouring out the seams of his impassivity and causing tears to well in his eyes. Before Troy can see, he hides his face in the other boy’s chest, grabbing fistfuls of Troy’s shirt and holding on tight. 

“I love you, too.” He murmurs into the fabric of Troy’s pyjamas. “I love you, I love you, I love you.”

Troy laughs. “Three times?” 

“One ‘I love you’ for each of the years I’ve wanted to tell you so but never did.” Abed explains, drawing back to meet the other boy’s gaze. Troy’s expression softens, and he pulls Abed in for a sweet, lingering kiss. 

“Abed Nadir, I love you, I love you, I love you.”


End file.
